FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BAGGAGE - PAGE 5

Until the start of this year, Steve Ferry always locked his baggage before checking it for a flight -- and with good reason. "I've got five grand worth of stuff in here, with all my lighting equipment," said the writer-photographer as he rolled a formidable stack of luggage on a small dolly to a check-in counter at O'Hare International Airport. "And the idea of sending it through without a lock. ... I feel like I'm gambling," said Ferry, 49, who was heading home to Clearwater, Fla., after doing a product photo shoot in Chicago.

"'Excess Baggage'!" I laughed as my mother handed me the book. "Are you trying to tell me something?" I was sure it had to do with the months of moving my "baggage" from room to room through carpeting and painting. I was tired, worn out and disgusted. How, I wondered, had I once gone off to Europe with a couple of footlockers and a trunk - and how was I now saddled with rooms full of furniture. A house, not an apartment. Cleaning, repair and maintenance chores. My mother then bought me a colorful doormat to complement my decorating.

REGION BAGGAGE CLAIM. The Peninsula Airport Commission will receive a grant of up to $50,000 from the state to study the need for an expanded baggage claim area at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. The PAC will be required to pay for 20 percent of the study's cost. The airport is looking into adding on to the terminal's baggage claim area to handle increased passenger traffic. James Smith, the airport's executive director, said he hopes to provide the completed study to state aviation officials early next year.

You might call "Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same," a new book about the frustrations of modern life and romance, the ultimate in Chick Lit. It is, after all, about chicks. In this hilarious book of color photos and captions, author and visual artist Sloane Tanen fashions a parallel universe where toy chicks, the kind you find in Easter baskets, appear in various dollhouse dioramas, pondering the very modern situations and mindsets in which they find themselves. We see troubled chicks and shrinks.

Airline officials are pointing the finger of blame at the unions. The federal government on Monday ordered an investigation into thousands of canceled flights and lost baggage that crippled two of the nation's largest airlines over the holiday weekend. As US Airways and Comair, a regional affiliate of Delta Air Lines, continued efforts to restore operations, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta ordered the probe. But it could be days before passengers of the two airlines, their baggage and Christmas presents are reunited, according to officials trying to unsnarl a system that saw thousands of canceled flights due to a rash of sick calls, a computer glitch, snow and freezing rain.

Construction of the new $26 million Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport Terminal is entering the home stretch, although the official opening may be a month later than originally expected. Mark Falin, airport terminal systems specialist, said the new terminal is scheduled to open July 17. Original projections had called for a June 14 opening date. Work now centers around carpeting and painting the interior of the building, Falin said. Heating and air conditioning work is also underway, as is installation of the airport's baggage conveyor system.

Passenger traffic continued to grow in August at the region's three airports. A total of 39,893 people flew into or out of Newport News/Williamsburg International, up 18.3 percent from the same month in 1998. Passenger traffic through the first eight months of the year is 28.7 percent ahead of the same period last year. Newport News airport officials this month plan to ask state officials for money to help expand the baggage claim area. Norfolk's passenger traffic was up 3.5 percent in August.

A bomb threat delayed a Delta Airlines flight about two hours Sunday while State Police and FBI agents examined baggage that had been loaded aboard the Boeing 727 jetliner, said FBI Special Agent Bob Schaefer. It was the second bomb hoax at Norfolk International Airport this week. On March 5, a USAir DC-9 returned to Norfolk shortly after takeoff when an irate couple who missed the flight reported a bomb aboard. No bomb was found in either incident. In Sunday's incident, Delta Flight 858 had landed at Norfolk en route from Cincinnati to Atlanta, when the threat was reported at 4:10 p.m., Schaefer said.

A federal survey saw poor performance on arrival times, baggage handling and bumping. A report issued Wednesday confirms what many travelers already suspected -- 2006 was a tough year to fly. The performance of U.S. airlines in categories such as on-time arrivals, baggage handling and passenger bumping was the worst in years, according to the annual industry report card released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The full report can be viewed at http://airconsumer.

Q: As an infrequent flier, I'm planning a trip to Europe. Could you update me on current restrictions for baggage? Specifically items that would not be allowed either in carry-on or checked baggage: nail file, nail clipper, razor, pins (jewelry?). We will be flying British Air. -- G.M., Showmakersville, Pa. A: Before you board your overseas flight, you'll go through U.S. security, so it's the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that determines what you can and cannot take along.